


Touched

by smittenhufflepuff



Series: Freezing and Melting [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort, Gen, Gentleness, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 15:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13860840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smittenhufflepuff/pseuds/smittenhufflepuff
Summary: This moment was like glass to them- like anything could shatter it if touched./////////////////////////////////////////////Matt was alive and Shiro is overjoyed.





	Touched

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This fic includes references to character death.

The leader couldn’t believe what he saw. He was alive. The man he had thought was dead stood only metres away, stepping slowly towards him. The man had a slight limp now and a scar on his cheek but it was him. Those same light brown eyes were sparked now, not cold like he remembered. Shiro couldn’t move as Matt walked towards him.

They were face to face now, Matt beaming up at Shiro. Two pairs of eyes started to water as the taller of the men pulled the other one into an embrace. At some point they dropped to their knees, still holding onto each other and not saying a damn word. This moment was like glass to them- like anything could shatter it if touched.  
A billion things raced through Shiro’s head of what he could say when he finally felt he was able to. Matt beat him to it as he muttered into the crook between the paladin’s neck and shoulder. 

“I missed you.” 

It broke the moment, letting all the pain they had tried to shut out flood back in. Tears streamed down their faces and they sobbed. The two kept repeating that sentence to each other like a broken record stuck on the same few seconds.

I missed you. I missed you. I missed you.

They could have been there for hours for all Shiro knew- he didn’t care. He had down his time of not having Matt in his life, gone through the pain of believing they would never meet again. “Never again,” he promised himself, “never again.” 

Eventually they were forced to seperate. Pidge wanted to show Matt everything and Matt wanted to know everyone. He still bubbled like he used, going on and on about anything that interested him, making endless puns about situations, showing pride in all his siblings accomplishments. Shiro watched when he could, let himself be pulled into the nostalgia that was Matt’s personality. He didn’t quite believe this yet but he let his mind forget about everything for the time being. Matt was alive and that was that.

They talked when they caught each other. It was mostly just catching up and reminiscing. In fact Shiro notice that they both actively avoided the topic of what happened at the base. Sometimes when one got close to mentioning it they would just slip in a comfortable silence, continuing any work they could due with others calming presence. This was still something delicate but it wasn’t like the glass from the beginning. Shiro tried to ignore that to.

One night Shiro couldn’t sleep. He didn’t sleep most nights to be fair- nightmares and flashbacks kept most rest at bay. He walked into the large room that Pidge had claimed as their workspace. But instead of finding the youngest paladin, he found the older Holt. The commander was tinkering with a small device with his tongue stuck out slightly whilst in deep concentration. 

Shiro broke the quiet and put what he was working on down to look at the leader. Neither would remember who brought the subject up but both began to discuss what happened. Because Shiro had seen Matt die and Matt had felt himself dying. They didn’t have any good answers in the end and both felt prickly. Anger towards the galra spiked inside them both but neither could do anything about it. Not now, not this late. Instead they sat next to one another and talked.

“It hurt.” One said.

“I know.” Said the other.

“I missed you.” One confessed.

“I missed you to.” The other replied. 

They didn’t move until the next day when Pidge found them asleep and leaning together. They grabbed a spare blanket they kept around and chucked it on the two. The two stirred, staring over at the young paladin as they worked. Pidge made a joke, Matt fired one back, Shiro chuckled. And maybe this would be okay. Maybe it didn’t always have hurt. Maybe it can sometimes be light. Maybe this is it.

Matt had to get back to rebelling and Shiro had to get back to leading the paladins. Before Matt got back on his ship once again they hugged but not quite as tight as the first time. Shiro didn’t need to check that Matt was real anymore. He was as real as any of the other wild things that had happened to them these past years. This was believable to him.

As the leader watched the commander’s ship fly off into the deep darkness of space Shiro got that rush of feeling alive. Because though this was not the first he had felt this since joining the paladins Shiro realised something. He was not alone anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so as you can tell I wrote this pretty much as soon as I finished my last one because it was sad as fuck. Hope you liked this gentleness.
> 
> Also you can read this as Shiro/Matt but please keep in mind that this was not the focus. The focus was comfort and that can be platonic to. That was why I did not tag it as such. 
> 
> Love,
> 
> Smitten/Danny


End file.
